In order to advance anywhere in life, we need to have an education of some kind. What happens if the education that we receive is wrong? By that I mean, what if the information we are given is flat out wrong? I realize that facts change over time. Facts are not truth. Facts are generally little nuggets of information that are dug up and bandied about just to show how smart we are, or convince ourselves that we know what we are talking about.

I specialize in facts. (Tongue planted firmly in cheek)

It was once a fact that the earth was the center of the universe, then the center of the solar system. It was once fact that space was filled with a substance called phlogiston. It was once fact that Mars was criss-crossed with canals.

We’ve come to learn that those factoids are simply not true.

Which brings me to the case of the political spectrum. We define our politics as Republicans (right wing) and Democrats (left wing). We are told in our history classes that Communism and socialism are on the far left of the political spectrum, and fascists, Nazis and fundamental religious folks are to the far right.

Adolf Hitler was, in fact, a leftist, even though we are taught that he was a right wing extremist. I’m not saying this because National Socialism has the word “Socialism” in it, or that it was because the Nazi Party grew out of the old German Worker’s Party. It’s not that simple, but he was a left winger because he was the head of an authoritarian police state.

Compare Stalin’s Soviet Russia to Hitler’s Nazi Germany, and you won’t find many differences. In both nations, the government controlled all.

Why are we taught, then, that the Nazis were right wingers? Is it because they were racist and hated the Jews? Is it because they murdered homosexuals? Is it because there are some who believe that Hitler was a closet homosexual who hated himself? Is it because he tried to exterminate an entire race? The Communists murdered indiscriminately, so that’s not it.

It is because we are taught to look at those who disagree with us politically as enemies to be feared and distrusted. It is to disguise from us what is really happening to our own government.

Let’s look at it this way. On the far left, there is 100%, total government. The government runs, owns and controls everything. In some cases, like with the Nazis, they didn’t own the businesses, but they directed how they would be run, and what they would make or sell. The State controlled the means, the use of, and the distribution of production. Would we say that is a dictatorial and tyrannical government?

Let’s look the other direction to the far right, where there is no government at all. It is the ultimate freedom. Everyone can do what they want to, live where they want. No one owns any personal property. No one has to do anything they don’t want to, and if someone angers you, you can kill them. You take what you want because you want it, because there are no rules. You take what you want because you are strong enough to take it.

Utopia, right?

That’s called Anarchy, and it is non-governmental fascism. The difference is that it is that instead of a government suppressing the citizens, you have mobs of people and gangs making the rules. Those who have guns rule over those who do not, just ask those who lived in Soviet Russia. Those who have the might, make the rules.

Society can’t function without some form of law and order.

Some anarchist think that we reject anarchy because we are afraid that we might not be able to control ourselves and behave in a civilized manner towards each other.

In fact, most of us know that humans can’t be trusted, as we have a well documented history that shows us that absolute power corrupts absolutely. It isn’t that we fear what may come, but we recognize what will happen if left to our own devices.

Communism = Fascism

Socialism = Fascism

Nazism = Fascism

Might Makes Right = Fascism

Anarchy is not equal to fascism, but it does open the road to it.

With Anarchy anchoring the far right of the spectrum, every form of government is to the left of that. Our Founders recognized government as a necessary evil, but one that needed to be contained and restricted. Remember, they had just emerged from a period of conflict with an authoritarian government. Because of this conflict, they distrusted standing armies, and saw them as the instrument with which liberty was crushed.

They did their absolute best to give us a government that was as limited in power as possible. The Bill of Rights was added later, and whereas the Constitution is a list of how the Federal government is set up and the powers that it has and does not have, the Bill of Rights is a list of items the government specifically cannot do. They even gave us the ability to amend it if something becomes outdated or needed to be changed.

George Mason, the Father of the Bill of Rights, was one of three who did not sign the Constitution because there was no Bill of Rights for individuals, and no Bill of Rights for the States.

The Constitution provides a series of checks and balances that we learned in school, but what has been left out of our government lessons is that the ultimate checks lay with the States, and then to the People. We are taught in our classes that the Supreme Court is the supreme law of the land. That isn’t true. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and what the Supreme Court says is valid only as long as we, the People, allow it.

As the government takes more power for itself, it shifts further to the left.

Every time the government assumes controlling interest in a business, it shifts further to the left.

Every time a government agency creates more rules outside of the legislative process, the government shifts further to the left. (Any regulation, or set of regulations a government agency makes should go before Congress for review.)

Every time a civil liberty is eroded or eliminated, the government shifts further to the left.

Every time our rights are infringed upon, the government shifts further to the left.

Anyone who believes the government should grow larger, or that “there ought to be a law”, they believe the government should shift further to the left.

More often than not when the government shifts left, it doesn’t comes back towards the right where it should be.

Contrary to claims otherwise, Hitler was never elected Chancellor of Germany. He was appointed by President Paul von Hindenburg in 1933. Hindenburg was reluctant to do so, but relented to a couple of influential politicians and industrialists. Hitler did gain a majority in the Reichstag later in 1933 through political violence and anti-Communist propaganda in the days leading up to the election. It also helped that Hindenburg had 4000 Communists arrested for the Reichstag fire (at the urging of Hitler, of course). With that majority, he seized absolute power in Germany.

The Constitution was designed to prevent this sort of usurpation. It has been eroded over time, especially in the 20th Century. I’m going to eventually do a complete article on it: the ratification of the 17th Amendment eroded power from the States by taking away their representation and giving it to the people.

An authoritarian, an absolutist, if you will, is an authoritarian. It does not matter what they name themselves. It does not follow that one authoritarian will necessarily like another or their ideology.

Totalitarianism is tyranny, but a wolf is a wolf. If we are not careful, the wolf will end up eating our sheep while we are busy arguing over what kind of wolf it is.